The Academy Team
The African Data Journalism Academy will be led by a team of experienced data journalists and trainers. It will also include guest speakers from leading newsrooms and data journalism organisations.
The lead trainers will be Laura Grant and Alastair Otter, multi award-winning data journalists based in South Africa. They have trained journalists across Africa in data journalism and have worked with leading newsrooms in the region. They are the founders of Media Hack Collective and data journalism publication The Outlier.
Other speakers and trainers will be announced soon.
Shoks Mnisi Mzolo
Academy coordinator
Shoks Mnisi Mzolo is a project manager at Media Hack Collective, where he is responsible for the African Data Journalism Academy. His background is in project management, journalism and corporate research. Shoks has also dabbled in broadcasting and his byline has appeared in Joburg titles such as Destiny, Financial Mail, Mail & Guardian and, further afield, The EastAfrican, Daily Nation and The Straits Times. Shoks got to travel to different parts of Africa and gained insights aplenty, while working as a journalist covering arts & culture, as well as business and economics (with a dash of politics).
Laura Grant
Lead trainer
Laura Grant is an award-winning data journalist who has been training people in the communications business for five years in data and visualisation skills. She is the founder and director of Media Hack Collective and the managing editor of The Outlier, South Africa’s first data-driven online publication.
Alastair Otter
Lead trainer
Alastair has been a journalist for more than 20 years. He has won more than 10 national and international awards for data storytelling and visualisation.